| Abstract: | This paper is primarily aimed at counselling and psychotherapy practitioners who meet issues of workplace conflict in their practice and the resulting stress and trauma faced by their clients. I define workplace conflict as complex and enduring situations arising from diverse forms of harassment. These include bullying, scapegoating and other discriminatory and oppressive practices that affect health, esteem and work performance. This paper reports the findings from my doctoral research project which investigated and sought to understand the specific experience and nature of workplace conflict for black workers in three institutional settings: the National Health Service (NHS), education and social services. The inspiration for this research came from psychotherapy practice, where it was repeatedly observed that black workers appeared to be suffering significantly more negative and damaging effects of workplace stress and trauma than white workers. I describe these experiences as workplace oppression and differentiate them from other workplace conflicts. |
